The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and, more particularly, to a thermal head for the recording apparatus of the heat-sensitive printing paper type or a heat transfer type, in which the thermal head is serially scanned in the width direction of a paper.
A conventional thermal head comprises a flat rectangular substrate carrying a plurality of thermal resistor elements or dots corresponding to a matrix-shape, so that some thermal resistors are heated by selectively applying an electric pulse to produce a thermal pattern representative of a desired character. A driving element for driving the thermal resistor elements may also be mounted on the substrate.
Conventionally, to provide heat radiation, the plurality of thermal resistor elements are disposed on the substrate with a margin from the outline side of the substrate. Usually, the thickness of the thermal resistor elements is about 100 .mu.m. Because of the thickness of the driving element and the right edge of the substrate, it is difficult to locate the plurality of thermal resistor elements close to the surface of a recording paper. The right edges of the substrate may collide with the paper surface near some of the thermal resistor elements and prevent some periheral elements of the thermal resistor elements from being close to the paper surface.
Accordingly, conventionally, very exact positioning of the thermal head is required and is very complicated.